The text message that sparked fury among Wimbledon stars
<p>Harmony Tan pulled out of the Wimbledon doubles tournament on Wednesday the 29th of June. This comes just hours after stunning Serena Williams, leaving her partner “sad, disappointed and angry”.</p>
<p>The French player was scheduled to play women’s doubles with Tamara Korpatsch but withdrew due to a thigh injury. She had sent her would-be teammate a text message to break the bad news.</p>
<p>“She just texted me this morning,” a furious Korpatsch wrote on Instagram. “Let me wait here 1 hour (alone on the court) before the match started. I’m very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can’t play my 1st Doubles Grand Slam.</p>
<p>“It’s really not fair for me. I didn’t deserve that. She asked me before the tournament if I wanna play doubles and I said yes. I didn’t ask her, she asked me!</p>
<p>“If you’re broken after a 3h match the day before, you can’t play professional. That’s my opinion.”</p>
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<p>Korpatsch included a series of critical hashtags in her post, including “unsportsmanlike”, “unfair” and “mad”.</p>
<p>Tan recorded the biggest win of her career with a three-set triumph over Williams on Wednesday the 29th of June.</p>
<p>Playing her first ever match at Wimbledon and only her ninth grand slam match overall, Tan secured a dramatic 7-5 1-6 7-6 (10-7) victory.</p>
<p>“When I first saw the draw, I was really scared. Because it’s Serena Williams, she’s a legend,” Tan said afterwards.</p>
<p>“When I was young I was watching her so many times on the TV. For my first Wimbledon this is just... wow.”</p>
<p>Williams has brushed off any talk of retirement after the defeat by insisting she is “motivated” to play at the US Open later this year.</p>
<p>“The US Open was the place where I won my first slam, it’s super-special. There’s definitely a lot of motivation to get better and play at home,” the 40-year-old said.</p>
<p>Williams refused to speculate on whether or not she will be back at Wimbledon in 2023, as doubts had been growing about whether Williams would return to the sport after dropping from number one to 1204th in the rankings after taking time off to recover from an injury.</p>
<p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>
